- PwC hosts “prompting events” to assist staff experiment with generative AI instruments.
- The agency’s chief studying officer mentioned staff wanted a secure, low-stakes format to experiment with it.
- PwC introduced final yr it was investing $1 billion over three years to broaden its AI capabilities.
Generative AI is reshaping the office, however many staff are nonetheless uncertain how one can use it.
PwC, a Huge 4 skilled providers agency, is addressing that hole with “prompting events.”
In 2023, PwC introduced it was investing $1 billion over three years to broaden its AI capabilities. Later that yr the corporate launched My AI, an upskilling initiative for workers to get educated on how one can use AI responsibly.
However Leah Houde, the chief studying officer at PwC, instructed Enterprise Insider that after the preliminary AI trainings, there was nonetheless a ability hole when it got here to staff truly placing the know-how to make use of, although staff needed to know extra about how one can use it.
In 2024, AI was among the many prime 5 phrases searched in PwC’s inner studying and improvement platform, in comparison with being within the prime 15 in 2023 and never even within the prime 100 in 2022, PwC represenatives instructed BI.
“The cognitive load that it takes to simply strive one thing new in the middle of doing what you are usually doing is difficult,” Houde mentioned, including that many staff simply did not know the place to start out with AI prompts, that are the written directions given to an AI device to be able to elicit a helpful response.
Individuals wanted a secure, low-stakes place to play with the instruments. That is the place the AI prompting events got here in.
The group classes, which will be run independently amongst groups or by an organization AI chief, are geared toward making staff snug utilizing AI instruments like Microsoft Copilot and ChatPwC — the corporate’s inner model of ChatGPT.
The classes concentrate on actual use instances, so staff can collaboratively experiment with utilizing AI to assist them resolve an issue or accomplish a job that is particular to their group.
Houde mentioned the classes are like a “playground the place I am not engaged on a consumer deliverable or writing an e mail to my boss or one thing that may give me anxiousness that I do not need to mess up with AI.”
She mentioned experimenting in a gaggle setting additionally permits staff to be taught from every others’ prompts, giving them new concepts about what AI can do. It is also made them extra more likely to check out AI on their very own time too, Houde mentioned.
Since launching in March, PwC mentioned it has hosted almost 500 prompting events and over 880 extra have been requested, so they’re scaling as much as meet the demand.
Houde mentioned changing into conversant in AI was particularly essential for workers at PwC as knowledgeable providers agency, for the reason that firm’s purchasers typically flip to its staff to get their very own questions on AI answered.
Workforce specialists beforehand instructed BI’s Tim Paradis that getting staff up to the mark with AI is important, and that it’s going to require the assistance and funding of employers.
A survey printed by Slack in November discovered the speed of AI adoption amongst desk staff had plateaued, regardless of corporations persevering with to take a position closely in AI for his or her enterprise.
However Houde mentioned it is not simply AI or different technical abilities that staff at PwC need extra coaching on. Phrases like “inclusion” and “inclusive mindset” are among the many prime searched on the corporate’s coaching platform yearly.
“The factor that it says to me is that the human interplay is all the time going to matter,” she mentioned.
Going ahead, Houde mentioned she’s most enthusiastic about how AI can be utilized to create customized studying and improvement plans for folks primarily based on their present abilities and the place they need to go of their careers.
As an alternative of generically recommending the identical trainings to everybody, AI can flag trainings which can be most related to every particular person.
“AI is now enabling us to know the abilities our folks have and make connections between the abilities that they’ve and the abilities that they are going to have to progress,” Houde mentioned.
Have a information tip or a narrative to share? Do you’re employed in consulting or have you ever labored with a consulting profession coach? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.
